


I Still Love You

by SonnyD



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Engagement, F/M, Female Danny, Gender or Sex Swap, Implied Sexual Content, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2018-11-21 19:09:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11363778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonnyD/pseuds/SonnyD
Summary: Hawaii may be considered paradise to most, if not all other persons, but when Dani Williams is forced to move to the pineapple infested archipelago, she is less than happy about it. Life in Honolulu wasn't as easy as it seemed and she was learning that the hard way, especially when an unwanted blast from the past comes back into her life in the least expected way possible.





	1. It Just Had To Be Hawaii

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! So, this is my first work here and I hope you like it. I chose to make Danny a girl because why not? I've always wanted to see what it would be like if he were a woman. Anyway, have fun reading.

If there was one thing that Dani hated more than anything else in the world, it was pineapple. Now thanks to Ray and his absolutely ‘ingenious’ wife, she was surrounded by the stuff. Everywhere she looked she saw tropical sunshine and palm trees but worst of all, pineapples. It was as if the locals thought it was necessary to ruin anything edible with it.

Dani sighed, trying to keeping her eyes on the road as she used one hand to search through her handbag. There just had to be a pack of gum in there somewhere or at least one stick. She needed to get the terrible taste of the fruit out of her mouth. Trust her to somehow have the only person on the island besides her partner to be kind to the haole be a matronly waitress who insisted that the detective have a pineapple drink on the house. She was only trying to welcome her to the island in her own way and Dani didn’t want to hurt her feelings so she took a few sips to be nice. It was the last time she was eating out for lunch without backup ever again.

By the time she rolled into the parking lot of the Honolulu Police Department, she still hadn’t found any gum and she was beginning to get annoyed. Dani parked in her previous space and began to rummage through her handbag as soon as the engine was shut off. The detective grinned triumphantly when she found a packet of mint flavoured chewing gum and was quick to make use of its name. She took her time getting out of her Camaro, knowing that it wouldn’t make the day go any faster. On the way to her desk, she was intercepted by her partner, Meka.

“Hey Dani. Captain wants to see you in his office.”

“What does he want now?”

“I’m not sure but he told me that it was important.”

Dani resisted the urge to sigh, “Alright, thanks. I’ll go see what he wants.”

She trudged over to her desk, which had been assigned to her for six months now, and put down her handbag before reluctantly making her way to the captain’s office. The blond knocked and waited until she heard a faint ‘Come in’ before entering.

“You wanted to see me, sir?”

“Yes, Detective Williams. Please have a seat.”

He gestured towards the chairs in front of his desk and she quickly sat in one.

“Detective, I know this is not normally something I would do because this is somewhat of a personal case and you’re practically considered a rookie here,” he started, “Then I remembered what your arrest record looks like and I knew that you were right for the job.”

Dani watched as he reached down and pulled out something from the top drawer in his desk. He handed a file to her and continued to speak as she flipped through the pages inside.

“The murder of John McGarrett is a tough case but I’m giving it to you because I trust that you’ll be able to solve it.”

“Oh. I can…work with this.”

“Great. Good luck, Detective.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Dani stood up and left the office as she thought about the file in her hands. Despite it being considered hard, she was going to try her best to solve this case and to prove her oh so lovely co-workers wrong about her. When she got back to her desk, Meka was seated at his opposite one and staring at her expectantly.

“So?” he prompted.

Dani rolled her eyes, “He gave me a new case but it looks like I’ll be working on it alone. He never mentioned you.”

“Well, that’s fine by me. I’ve got to attend some mandatory training seminar for the whole of next week. Captain’s orders. What’s the case about?”

“John McGarrett. You know it, Hanamoa?”

Meka let out a low whistle that made his partner feel uneasy.

“That’s not an easy case, Williams, but if you think you can do it then alright.”

Dani frowned but nodded anyway. She was certain that she could solve this murder. She wasn’t the best detective in Homicide in Newark for no reason. As Meka turned away to organize his desk, she focused her attention on the file. All thoughts of solving it quickly went out the window as she read over the information pertaining to the case.

She now understood why her partner was so sceptical. There was almost nothing in the file that could help her. The blond frowned once again, almost groaning aloud. Of course this would happen to her. Damn Ray and his stupid custody agreement. Not to mention his wife. It just had to be Hawaii.

 ###

Dani sighed for what seemed to be the millionth time, rolling her shoulders in a fruitless attempt to ease the tension in them. It was the sixth time she was going over the case file and once again she was stuck at a dead end. It was only 12:00. She had come up with a number of possible leads and suspects in the three days she had the case but then just when she thought she had gotten somewhere other evidence popped up that proved otherwise. The only thing that stayed prominent was Victor Hesse.

“Dani, what’s the matter?”

The detective blinked and looked up only to find Meka standing beside her desk with a worried expression. She shook her head as she realised that she was spacing out.

“Uh, nothing. It’s just the case,” she explained, “I’m only feeling a little stressed is all.”

“You know you have to stop at some point. Why don’t you just go out for lunch? Clear your mind.”

“Not after what happened the last time.”

Meka laughed at the look on her face. Like any mature adult, she retaliated by sticking out her tongue at him. Her partner rolled his eyes before his face suddenly became serious once again.

“Really, Dani, just take it easy for a while. Please.”

The blonde stared up at her co-worker for a moment before letting out a defeated sigh.

“Alright, I’ll take a break. I need to wrap this up first.”

Meka smiled and nodded before leaving for another side of the station. Dani stayed true to her promise, finishing up her work until something caught her eye. A rectangular dust free space was found on the desk where a laptop might have been. She remembered Meka saying something about how John had never liked computers.

 _Strange,_ the detective thought. It was worth looking at the crime scene. She had promised her partner that she would take a break but there was no way she could pass this up.

 ###

When Dani arrived at the McGarrett estate, an uneasy feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. She stepped out of her Camaro and walked up to the house while checking for signs of it being disturbed. Once inside, she silently told herself to always trust her gut when she heard a faint sound coming from the garage. It sounded like a man’s voice but the volume was too low for Dani to make out what he was saying. She reached for her holster as she carefully approached the garage door. The blond was quick to aim her gun when she burst into the room and found a man standing on the other side. What she didn’t expect was him doing the same thing to her half a second later.

“Who are you?” he shouted.

“Who are _you_?” she called back.

The man was about to say something back when suddenly he stopped. He stared at Dani in disbelief and slowly lowered his gun.

“Dani?”

“Wait, Steve?”

“What are you doing here?”

“I should be asking you that. This is a crime scene.”

Suddenly, it clicked and Dani wanted to smack herself in the head. How could she not have noticed? John McGarrett. Steve McGarrett. His son. She had never felt more stupid now than she did in her entire life. She must’ve skipped over his name by accident when reading John’s personal information in the file.

“You’re working this case?” Steve’s voice carried over to her, breaking her from her thoughts.

“Um, yeah. Have a problem?” she asked, lowering her gun but not holstering it.

“Actually, I do,” he countered, “Why is there no one here?”

“Look, Steve, I really don’t want to do this. I’m sorry for your loss but you can’t be here.”

“Dani-”

“Steve, please, you have to leave.”

He looked as though he was going to say something else but thought better of it. He help up his hands in surrender and turned to leave. However, Dani saw him take up a tool box from the shelf beside him and she rolled her eyes.

“Forgetting something, moron?”

Steve turned around with an innocent expression.

“Hmm?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, McGarrett. Put it down.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

 “And you know I can’t let you take it.”

Steve’s eyes narrowed and his expression became thoughtful. Dani knew that was never a good sign in a situation like this. She was about to ask him what he was doing when suddenly he pulled out his phone from his pocket and began to make call.

“Hello? Governor Jameson? Yeah, I’d like to accept your offer.”

The detective couldn’t believe it. Steve had the governor of Hawaii on speed dial. What _couldn’t_ he do? She then watched helplessly, silently fuming as he recited an oath and was sworn in as the leader of a new task force. When he hung up, he gave her a smug grin which she immediately wanted to wipe off of his face.

“Sorry Dani but now it’s my crime scene.” he said with a shrug as though he hadn’t just taken away her work. Her very important work which was hand given to her by the captain. Dani was furious. There were a million things she wanted say and do to Steve at the moment though none of them were very nice. She clenched her hands, ignoring the urge to wrap them around his neck and squeeze until his big head turned blue. Dani was still a cop so murder was out of the question. Unfortunately. She sighed and holstered her gun before giving Steve a glowering look.

“You’re an asshole, Steven.”

With that said, the blond stormed out of the house, feeling an unwelcome sense of déjà vu.

 ###

Rain pelted the ground outside, falling in rushing torrents that created a din. Dani surprisingly didn’t mind the sudden downpour as it gave her a reason to stay inside. She had never liked the outdoors that much as she had grown up in a city. Being surrounded by all this nature on the island made her feel out of place but there was nothing she could or would do to stop it.

A knock on the door interrupted her peace and quiet. She groaned before getting up to open it, wondering who could possibly want to visit her and especially in this weather. However, when it only revealed a familiar face on the other side, she asked herself why she hadn’t thought of him first.

“What do you want? And how do you know where I live?” the blond asked, feeling more dejected than annoyed. That quickly turned around when Steve pushed his way into her apartment. “Oh, why don’t you come in?”

“I have my ways,” the SEAL replied, ignoring her sarcasm. He glanced around the small apartment and took in every detail available to the naked eye.

“Whatever. Just get out.”

“No. I need to talk to you.”

“Well, tough luck, buddy cause it’s not happening.”

“Dani, can you just listen?” He asked in a stern voice though it sounded more like a command. When Dani became silent, he continued before she could say anything else.

“I came here to get any more information you have on the case file.”

Dani sighed, “Okay, let me just go get them.”

“Oh and one more thing. The Governor gave me jurisdiction – I’m making you my partner.”

Caught off guard, the detective froze mid-step before slowly turning to look at Steve.  She had no idea what to think of his offer - no, his demand. First he takes over her case and now suddenly he wants her to be his partner.

“Excuse me?”

“I want you to be my partner, Dani.”

“I heard you the first time, you schmuck but why? If anything, I’d rather not have contact with you for the rest of my life.”

“Just take it.”

“Just…just take it? Excuse me, but who do you think you are to barge into my apartment and _demand_ that I be your partner? I have better things to do than to be stuck with someone like you.”

Dani was furious. How dare he? He couldn’t control her! In fact, he shouldn’t have been trying. At the same time, she wasn’t all that surprised. It was just like Steve to think that he could boss everyone around to do what he wanted. Commander was the right title.

“Fold out bed and no ring on your finger. You obviously moved here to be closer to your daughter. All you have left is your job but no one likes you there.”

Dani inhaled sharply, knowing that Steve’s description was spot on. She noticed the way his eyes darkened when he said the word ‘daughter’ but decided not to comment on it. How was she even supposed to respond to something like that?

“Come on, Dani, you have nothing to lose.”

They stared at each other for a long while before Dani looked away first. She said nothing, not wanting to admit defeat. Steve smiled as he took her silence for consent and the detective forced herself not to give in to the strong urge to punch him.

“Good. Anyway, I heard that you had requested a warrant on a guy named Fred Doran. What do you know about him?”

Dani bit her lip as a contemplative expression came over her face. Eventually, she told Steve all that she could remember about Doran with him being a suspected arms dealer and being involved in another homicide case.

“What’s that got to do with my father’s murder?”

“I ran a ballistics on the bullet used to kill your dad and I got a hit on the Doran investigation. Hesse might have had him hook him up with a gun when he got here.”

“Well, maybe he still knows where Hesse is. Let’s go.”

Steve then walked out of her apartment, leaving Dani to stare after him in disbelief. She followed him begrudgingly and got into the Camaro. During the ride, her phone started to ring. Steve raised an eyebrow at the Jaw’s opening theme song but the detective only rolled her eyes before declining the call.

“I’m guessing your marriage didn’t end well.” Steve commented.

“No, it didn’t. Maybe it would’ve had my ex not remarried and dragged my daughter out to this pineapple infested hellhole.”

“You don’t like the beach?”

“No, I don’t like the beach. Didn’t you know this already?”

“You never mentioned it. Who doesn’t like the beach?”

“I like cities. Skyscrapers, no tsunamis or jellyfish.”

“Tell me you can swim.”

“Can I swim?”

“You don’t know how to swim.”

“I can swim. I swim for survival, not for fun.”

Steve stared at her incredulously for a moment, silently wondering how he come to fall in love with her before. When she turned her head towards the windshield to focus on the road, he remembered. The sun reflected off her hair causing it to look like a golden halo. Her skin seemed to glow from an oncoming tan and her blue eyes sparkled in the light. His admiration was cut short when her phone began to ring again.

Dani chose to answer it this time, “Yes, dear?”

Suddenly, her face changed as a grin highlighted her features.

“Hey, monkey. I thought you were your dad…I’m so glad that everyone liked Mr. Hoppy…I’m so excited too, baby. We’re gonna have so much fun this weekend…Hey, Danno loves you.”

She hung up and Steve couldn’t resist asking his question.

“Who’s Danno?”

“Don’t.”

“Hmm?”

“Just don’t.”

“Okay.”

“Thank you.”

“Yeah.”

They soon arrived at Doran’s community and the SEAL immediately jumped out of the car. Dani reached out to stop him and called him back.

“Hey, hey, where are you going? You can’t go in there without backup.”

“You are the backup.” the man muttered in response before walking away.

“I’m the backup. I hate him. I hate him so much.”

Steve and Dani approached the house cautiously when suddenly an angry blonde stormed out, shouting curses to someone behind her inside. She startled at Steve and Dani who were on either side of the door which alerted the person inside to their presence. The man, Doran, ran as soon as he noticed the two law enforcement officers on his property but not before shooting at them with a random gun on his coffee table. It grazed Dani’s arm and she flew back through the window from the impact. Steve was quick to follow Doran, leaving his new partner behind to cover him. She ran around the house and reached the marketplace behind it in time to see Doran, with a hostage, point his gun towards Steve.

Without thinking, the detective shot at the arms dealer, the bullet hitting him in the head. It was silent between the partners for a long while until sirens pierced the still air and the sound jolted Steve back into action. He went back into the house as officers began to reinforce the area with police tape. As he was searching, a sound coming from behind a closed door caught his ears. When he opened it, he was surprised to see a young Asian girl on the floor, tied to a pipe.

While asking for her name in Mandarin when it became clear that she didn’t speak English, he untied her and led her outside to get treated by a paramedic. Steve asked her all he needed to know about her situation and approached Dani, who was leaning on the hood of a police cruiser, afterwards to inform her of what had happened.

“Okay, so she was smuggled in four days ago on a cargo ship with her parents and a bunch of other refugees. When she gets here, she’s traded to Doran-”

“Okay, I’m sorry but what about the thanks I get for saving your life?”

 “You just killed our only lead.”

Dani stared at him in disbelief. She had gotten shot at and saved his life but this was the thanks she got? The wound she got was painful but she was lucky to have only gotten grazed.

“Excuse me? I saved you from getting shot and that’s all you can think of?”

She walked away and bristled when she heard his footsteps behind her. As she was walking away, a hand fell on her shoulder and she whipped around to glare at Steve.

“What?” she snapped.

“You can’t just walk away from this, Dani.”

“Oh really? Watch me.” she said and turned to leave.

Steve grabbed her arm, “Dani, stop. You just killed our only lead. What are we going to do?”

Dani gritted her teeth, her eyes narrowing in resent. She was close to punching Steve and if he didn’t stop while he was ahead – barely – then she would have to give in to temptation.

“Are you kidding me?”

“These are the same guys who have been smuggling people out of China. They could have gotten Hesse onto the island.”

“You just took a stupid risk! I’m not getting myself killed for your personal vendetta, alright? I have a daughter.”

“Well, that girl is someone’s daughter too.”

“You don’t get it, do you? I mean for someone who just lost their father, you’re pretty dense.”

“What did you just say to me? What did you just say to me? What if she was yours?”

“Do not question my resolve-”

“I’m warning you. Get your hand out of my face.”

“Listen to me, you son of a bitch –”

Her sentence was cut off when Steve suddenly grabbed her hand which she had been using to point at his face. She gasped as his grip on her wrist was almost painful.

“Okay, now you don’t have to like me but there’s no one else to do this job,” Steve said while shooing away the officers nearby.

“Yeah, I get it. Can you let me go?”

Dani waited until Steve released his grip on her hand before she stopped resisting the urge and gave him a taste of her right hook. The SEAL stumbled back from the force of the blow, holding his jaw as he stared at the blond in shock.

“You’re right. I don’t like you. Plus, I’ve been meaning to punch you since I saw you.”

Dani stormed away towards the Camaro and Steve could only stare after her in shock. He quickly snapped out of it when he saw her get into the driver’s seat and start the engine. The woman said nothing as he got into the passenger seat and drove away from the crime scene. The silence between them was deafening. At least it was to Steve. As weird as it was, he preferred it if Dani was shouting at him. He wanted her to yell at him, to curse him. He wanted her to rant about everything that had just happened.

“How’s the arm?”

“Let’s just not talk.”

“Does that mean now or ever again?”

“Both.”

Steve nodded and turned his head to look out the window.

“You know I think I might know why your husband left you.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he immediately regretted them but he couldn’t take them back. Not when she had already heard them and he knew that she wouldn’t let it go.

“Oh really? Is it the same reason why you left me?”

“Dani –”

“No, no, no, I want to hear your reason, Steven. Surely, it must be good enough for why all the men in my life besides my father have decided to let me down.”

Steve bit his lip, unsure of how to continue. Finally, he decided to go along with his original, albeit stupid, plan.

“You’re sensitive.” he said.

“You think I’m sensitive? When did it occur to you that I was sensitive, huh?” Dani shouted, “Was it when I had a bullet tearing through my flesh? Was that it? You know, I’m glad that you’re not afraid of anything. I’m glad that you’ve got that G.I. Joe thousand yard stare from chasing shoe bombers around the world but here in civilised society, we have rules. It’s what separates the jackals and hyenas.”

“Jackals and hyenas?”

 “Animal planet. Whatever. It doesn’t matter. The point is when you get someone shot, you apologize!”

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t wait for a special occasion-”

“Hey, I’m sorry-”

“Like birthdays-”

“Dani, I’m sorry-”

“Or freaking President’s Day-”

“Dani, I am sorry I got you shot at, okay? I’m sincerely sorry. Which is what I’ve been trying to tell you last year…when this conversation started.”

Dani pursed her lips, “Your, uh …apology is noted, acceptance is pending.”

Steve smiled at that. It wasn’t much but he would take what he could get.

“Okay, let me know.”

“Yeah, I’ll let you know.”

“Make the next left up here.”

“Why?”

“I think I know someone who can help us.”


	2. Resolve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey people. So, this is the second chapter. Sorry if I took long to write it. I was kinda busy. Anyway, have fun reading. I hope you enjoy it!

When they arrived at Pearl Harbour, Dani was confused as to what Steve would want with someone there but said nothing as they entered a café. She soon found herself sitting at a table with him across from a native Hawaiian employee whom the SEAL had introduced as Chin.

“Her name is Chen Chi.”

“Where’d you find her?” Chin asked, referring to the picture on Steve’s phone of the girl he had found.

“Locked in a house. She came here to start a new life, they drugged her and turned her into a prostitute,” Steve replied, “We’re looking for a guy named Victor Hesse. He’s high profile and on everyone’s radar. He didn’t just come here and get his passport stamped.”

“You think the same network that brought this girl to the island smuggled Hesse in.”

“He made a fortune trafficking kids out of Malaysia.”

“There’s a local Chinese guy who specialises in human trafficking.”

“So, we need a name,” Dani said.

 “Are you kidding me? Look at me. I’m a rubber gun, man.”

“You spent fifteen years in the force,” Dani interjected, “Surely there’s something you can do.”

Chin’s gaze flickered over to her and for a moment it seemed as though he wasn’t going to change his mind but he eventually sighed in defeat.

“Alright, I know this guy who has ties to that world.”

Steve nodded once, “So, get us in then.”

“Forget it. He’s a former confidential informant. He trusts no one, especially haoles.”

“You talk to him then.”

“I’m busy.”

“With what?” Dani interrupted, “Were you expecting a crime wave in the gift shop?”

Chin frowned, “Look, I can’t be a cop anymore.”

“Why not?” Steve asked.

“Because I can’t be! HPD accused me of taking payoffs so I’m the last person the department wants to see wearing a badge,” the other man explained, “Look, I got to go.”

As he got up and walked away, Steve and Dani turned to look at him. The blonde was about to make a snarky remark to her new partner but was prevented from doing so when he began to speak.

“Did you take the money?”

His voice was loud and clear so there was no mistaking his question. Dani didn’t want to believe that Steve would ask something like that but she, unfortunately, knew better. That didn’t stop her from being startled at his sudden abrasiveness, however. She wasn’t the only one surprised by the SEAL’s blunt question. Chin, who had stopped in his tracks, turned around to give the younger man an incredulous look.

“Excuse me?” he asked, his voice more than slightly offended.

“Did you take the money?” Steve repeated, stressing each word.

“No.”

The SEAL stood up from the table and walked over to Chin.

“So, come with us and we don’t have to bring this up again. Ever. Look, I don’t care what you think this is but I need you.”

“How do you know you can trust me?”

“Because my old man did.”

###

Waiola Shave Ice shack was a little place by the beach but seemed to be very popular. Dani watched as Chin approached the large man inside and exchanged pleasantries with him.

“Hey Kamekona!” he exclaimed with a large grin, “Howzit?”

The man, Kamekona, reached out and did a bro hug with the smaller Hawaiian.

“Good to see you, my bruddah.”

“Hey brah,” Chin’s expression quickly became serious as he leaned in closer, “I need a name.”

“They wait out there,” Kamekona said, nodding towards Steve and Dani, “After they pay. Two cones and two t-shirts. To go.”

Steve stepped up to the window, pulling out a wad of cash from his pocket, “Medium.”

“XL and up, brah. It’s the only thing my face will fit on.”

“How much kala, bulleh?”

“You speak bird, eh?”

“Yeah, I grew up here.”

“Don’t matter; you still look haole to me.”

Steve sighed and handed Kamekona a ten dollar bill.

“This one looks a little lonely, brah.”

The SEAL furrowed his eyebrows, glancing at Chin who nodded. He reluctantly gave the large Hawaiian another note before turning to leave.

“Cool. One more thing I need you two fine white people to do.”

Dani’s amusement at the situation quickly ebbed away to make way for suspicion when she heard those words. A few minutes later as she stood by the Camaro with Steve, both wearing large t-shirts and holding shaved ice, she wondered how many people Kamekona did this to. The blonde opened her mouth to say something to her partner when a little girl ran up to them.

“Are you a cop?” she asked innocently.

Steve looked confused and glanced at Dani for help but she only shrugged in response.

“Uh, no,” he replied, hoping that the girl would go away. He had no such luck.

“Well, you look like a cop.”

Steve bent down to the girl’s height, “You like cotton candy? Go find your mom.”

“I don’t like cotton candy.”

“I have something you might like,” Dani interjected, deciding that she’d had enough of her partner’s obvious discomfort. For now. She handed her shaved ice to Steve before reaching into the Camaro and pulling out a large stuffed pink bunny from the back. She had originally intended it to be for her daughter but when Grace showed her the new _real_ rabbit that Step-Stacey had given her, she knew that it wouldn’t be good enough.

“How about that?” the detective asked, watching as the girl’s face lit up at the sight of the stuffed animal.

“Yeah,” she replied, nodding eagerly. Dani gave the toy to her and stared after her as she ran off with it. When she looked back at Steve, he was staring down at her with a strange expression on his face.

“What?”

Before he could answer, a laughing Chin came up to them. Steve glowered at him.

“You better have a name.”

###

The Iolani Palace, while beautiful on the outside, wasn’t that much of a looker on the inside. At least, that was what Dani thought but she knew that this was what the task force’s headquarters would look like before they fixed it up. She was sitting at a table in the centre with Steve and Chin, the latter of which was searching up information on their lead.

“This is Sang Min,” Chin said as he held up his tablet to show his new teammates the mugshot on the screen, “According to Kamekona, he runs the island’s human import and export business. Hesse could have used him to get on or off the island.”

“That’s good and everything but how do we get him to tell us where Hesse is. I mean, he’s got no reason to,” Dani said.

“We use leverage,” Steve replied.

“Define leverage,” Chin interjected.

“Simple bait and trap. We wire up an undercover and send ‘em in.”

“Only one problem, malihini. We’re on an island with less than a million people which means the bad guys know the good guys. We need to look for our bait outside the box.”

“I take it you have the perfect guy in mind.”

Chin smirked, “Oh yeah.”

###

The beach was full of both tourists and locals alike, not to mention hot. Dani almost felt jealous of Steve who had been smart enough to grab a pair of sunglasses on the way. She had to squint in the sun’s glare as she stared at the surfer whom Chin had said would help.

“That’s your cousin?” she asked, just to make sure.

“Choose your next words carefully,” Chin said before glancing at Steve on his other side, “Both of you.”

“She’s very talented,” Dani commented.

“Yeah. She spent three years in the pro circuit before she blew out her knee. She was devastated. Had to reinvent herself and decided to wear a badge. Graduates from the police academy in a week. Unfortunately, she’s family which means that the HPD will never take her seriously.”

The three of them watched as Chin’s cousin surfed, managing to make the sport look effortless and almost graceful. Suddenly, another surfer came too close for comfort and knocked her off her board.

“Are you sure she’s ready for this?” Steve asked suddenly, “I mean she’s got no street experience.”

That statement was quickly put to rest when Chin’s cousin approached the surfer who had caused her to wipe out and punched him in the face. Dani grinned at the sight as Chin gave Steve a knowing look. They watched as she picked up her surfboard and turned around, finally taking notice of them.

“Cousin!” she called, running up to them. Chin stepped forward to greet her with a hug.

“Oh, you had it, water woman.”

They pulled away and Chin pointed to his teammates on either side of him.

“Kono, I’d like you to meet Commander Steve McGarrett and Detective Dani Williams.”

“Nice right cross,” Steve said as they shook hands.

“Nah, man. That was a left out.”

She shook Dani’s hand next and the two women smiled at each other.

“Hi,” the detective said.

“So, your cousin tells us that you’re graduating from the police academy next week. How’d you like to earn a little extra credit before you do?”

Kono gave Steve a contemplative look, “I’m listening.”

###

“Hey,” Dani greeted as she stepped inside the McGarrett house once again but for a completely different reason, “I spoke to Chin and he’s setting up the meeting with Sang Min. Also, I got the surveillance equipment you asked for.”

“You recognize this guy?” Steve asked, referring to the mugshot on the screen of the laptop before him. Dani bent down beside him to take a closer look and Steve tried not to get distracted by the familiar smell of her perfume. He couldn’t believe that after all these years she hadn’t changed it. Not that he was complaining.

“No. Who is he?”

“Jovan Etienne. His file says that he worked for the Russians as a computer programmer in SVR. He was here when my father was murdered. I found his palm prints in the study and partial boot prints in here-”

“Wait, hold on. How do you know the boot prints don’t belong to Hesse?”

“Hesse wears a size eleven like me, except double E. The prints I found were smaller and Hesse gets his footwear custom made. Direct injected polyutherane midsole with a natural rubber outsole.”

Dani blinked, “Your, uh…your brain must be a miserable place. I need a beer.”

Steve watched as she made her way to the kitchen, unable to keep the growing smile off of his face. The two soon found themselves on the SEAL’s private beach each with a beer in hand. Dani pointedly looked the other way as her partner changed his shirt. She had forgotten how easy it was to get him to take off his clothes. Some things just never changed.

“So, are you gonna tell me what Danno means?”

“Yeah, when you tell me what’s in the box.”

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know yet. All I know is that my father wanted me to find it. Right now it’s just a puzzle,” Steve said as he sat down in one of the deck chairs.

“Grace and I like puzzles.”

“You’re a good mother.”

“Maybe. I don’t know. There’s three ways of looking at it. One, I could get myself killed chasing some meth head scumbag. Then, what kind of mother would I be?”

“I always looked up to my father for that. You know, the sacrifices he made. I’m sure Grace is gonna feel the same way.”

“Yeah, either that or she’ll think I’m some selfish bitch,” Dani said, taking a seat on the other chair, “The truth is, it’s all I got. I need it. I wanna do what I’m good at and I’m good at what I do. If that means putting up with your twisted belief that you are never wrong, so be it.”

Steve smiled and held out his bottle. Dani smiled back as she clinked her bottle neck against his.

“What’s the third?”

“Well, even if I tell myself that this isn’t permanent, it’s Grace’s home now and I have to keep it safe.”

Silence passed between the two for a moment as they stared at each other. Dani looked away when Steve’s cell phone began to ring. The SEAL resisted the urge to sigh and answered the call.

“Yeah?” he paused, “Okay, good work.”

He then hung up and stared down at his phone as Dani looked back at him.

“What do you got?” she asked.

“That was Chin,” Steve replied, “Sang Min bought the picture and he’ll meet Kono tomorrow morning.”

“Okay but that still doesn’t guarantee that he’ll tell us where Hesse is.”

When Steve responded, his voice was firm, leaving no room for arguments.

“He has to. This is the only chance I get to find the man who killed my father.”

###

The next morning, the team was ready to go ahead with the plan. Dani helped Kono to get ready before she was sent inside the warehouse where Sang Min did his business. The detective then settled into the nearby truck where Chin and Steve were finishing their setup of the surveillance equipment. Everything was going well until Sang Min noticed sand in Kono’s hair.

“Sand,” he said, “What kind of person working two jobs has time to go to the beach?”

Dani immediately pulled off her headphones as she turned to her other teammates, “Alright, that’s it. Let’s get her out of there.”

“Relax, the kid can handle this,” Chin said.

“Hey, if he smells a trap, he’s gonna kill her.”

Chin turned to look at her, “Trust me.”

“I surf during my lunch hour,” Kono was saying.

“Or maybe you’re a cop,” Sang Min countered, “Did anyone check her for a wire?”

“We checked her when she came in,” one of his goons replied.

“Maybe you missed it.”

Sang Min turned to look at Kono once more and Dani had to give her props on how well she was acting. Despite her situation, she was still in character.

“Take off your dress so I know you’re not wearing a wire.”

Kono, bless her soul, complied with his demand and hesitantly peeled off her dress to show that she had no wire underneath.

“Turn around.”

She did and Sang Min walked up to her to get a closer look. He slowly walked around her like a predator teasing his prey before going back to his desk. Kono turned her head to look at him.

“I’d like to put my dress back on now.”

The only response she got was Sang Min taking a picture of her as she turned around fully.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m gonna send this photo to a friend of mine.”

“Okay, we got a wire on that phone. Trace the call, Dani,” Steve said.

“He’s gonna show it to his friends,” Sang Min was saying, “If anyone recognizes you…”

“Mobile number. Unlisted,” Dani said after she had traced the route of the picture.

“…you’re dead.”

“You got a location?” Steve asked, wanting get Kono out of the situation as fast as possible, “Dani?”

“It’s ringing inside my precinct.”

“We got a mole in there,” Chin stated. Just then, Sang Min’s phone rang and they watched with bated breath as he took it up. When he looked up at Kono once again, they knew that they had to do something and fast.

“We’ve got to move,” Chin said. They rushed into action as Kono quickly dispersed of Sang Min’s goons. The element of surprise was on their side when Steve got the bright idea to drive the truck through the wall, hitting one of the men inside in the process.

“You’re early,” Kono said, pointing her gun down at one of the men as Steve stepped down from the driver’s seat.

“You alright?”

She nodded in response as Dani and Chin climbed out of the truck to help. Steve went to arrest Sang Min when suddenly another man seemingly came out of nowhere with a gun aimed at him.

“Gun!” Dani shouted. Steve shot at the unknown assailant, giving Sang Min the time to grab a machine gun out of his desk drawer. He emptied the bullets into the walls and surrounding furniture as everyone ducked to avoid them before making his escape.

“Anybody hurt?” Steve called.

“Good!”

“Good!”

“Good!”

 After hearing the confirmations, the SEAL wasted no time to go after Sang Min and caught him trying to drive away. The car crashed into a nearby container and Steve ran up to it with his gun held up. He quickly apprehended Sang Min as the others came out of the warehouse. Suddenly, a noise came out of the container that had been crashed into.

“We’ve got movement over here,” Chin said.

“Go ahead,” Dani replied, “I got you.”

When the container was opened however, no one expected to see a large group of refugees huddled together. HPD was soon called in to help with the crime scene as the refugees were all loaded onto a bus and Chen Chi was finally returned to her parents.

###

Steve was never one to stray away from violence. So when he went back into the warehouse only to see Chin slapping Sang Min with an ash tray, he decided not to comment on it and even felt a little proud of his new teammate.

“Sorry, boss.”

“I didn’t see anything.”

Sang Min stared at him incredulously, “You didn’t see nothing? The son of a bitch just hit me!”

“If you want to file a report you’re gonna need a witness. Want to file a report?”

“I want to go to jail now,” the trafficker replied, glaring at Steve.

“Where is he?” Chin asked, “Where’s Hesse?”

When the only response was silence, Steve walked over to a nearby table and picked up two photos. He approached Sang Min again while looking down at them with a nonchalant expression.

“What about your wife and kid? You know where they are? I do.”

He help up a picture of a woman, “She’s getting her nails done on Kalakaua Avenue,” Then of a young boy, “And your boy, he’s at his private school in Diamond Head. You know, I wonder what he’s gonna think when he learns that daddy takes kids just like him and puts them on the streets to be pumped full of black heroin and sold to strangers like animals.”

The SEAL looked up at Sang Min who was staring at him silently.

“You’re going to jail. That part’s not up for negotiation. Your family is about to lose a husband and a father. In my eyes, they’re your victims too. The trouble is that the law doesn’t see it that way. Your wife? She’s from Ruanda, she’ll be sent back. They both will. If they’re lucky, they’ll make it to a refugee camp. And your son?” Steve waved the picture in Sang Min’s face, “Seven’s enough to hold a gun for the Hutu militia. I can prevent all that but I don’t help people who don’t help me.”

He put down the photos and walked back over to Sang Min who now looked visibly upset at the SEAL’s words.

“What kind of cops are you?”

“The new kind.”

###

Dani wasn’t quite sure how she ended up in a “borrowed” squad car with Steve cruising, or speeding as she liked to call it, down the highway on the way to stop a Chinese freighter which Hesse was aboard. She had thought that she would have been used to his crazy antics by now but sitting in the passenger seat as he swerved left and right to avoid traffic was quickly becoming a new experience that she never wanted to try again. After the man’s phone argument with the Governor, she had hoped for silence until the inevitable firefight in the future but her phone suddenly started to ring.

Dani answered it, cutting off the Jaw’s theme, “Son of a – yeah? Ray, Ray, don’t start with me! I left you two messages telling you that you need to pick her up…Don’t tell me that you had to change your plans! You send a driver for her half the time anyway…I can’t do that right now, I’m in the middle of something…Could you just stop for one second and do me a favour? Tell Grace that Danno loves her, alright?”

When she hung up, she found Steve glancing at her and sighed.

“Okay, Gracie was three and she tried to say my name but all that came out was Danno.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“It’s cute.”

“Shut up.”

“”Why can’t I say that it’s cute?”

“Because I don’t need you thinking anything of it. It’s between me and my daughter,”

Suddenly, Steve turned a sharp corner and Dani winced as she clutched the handle above her. She had a feeling that it would become her new best friend if a certain SEAL was in the driver’s seat. They stopped at the edge of the dock leading to the ship and stared at the freighter.

“There it is; the Emma Karl.”

“Okay, how do you want to do this?” Dani asked, already regretting the question. When Steve checked his gun, she could only nod with a roll of her eyes.

“Of course.”

“Hold on.”

Steve began to drive again, heading straight for the ship. Dani would have cursed him off for driving directly onto the freighter if not for the men already aboard engaging them in a firefight. The detective took care of Hesse’s men as her partner immediately went after the man himself. Eventually, he was able to shoot Hesse in the chest, causing him to fall off of the container they were on and into the water. As Dani apprehended the man whom she had shot in the leg, Steve peered down at her over the edge of the container.

“Get the Coast Guard to find that body.”

“What do you want me to do with this one?”

Steve smiled which, despite the blood on his face, made her feel equal parts flustered and fearful.

“Book ‘em, Danno.”

“What did I tell you about that?”

Suddenly, the man beneath her began to squirm.

“Where are you trying to go? Where?” she stood up, “Go ahead. Want me to shoot you? Stop moving.”

Steve looked down at the scene below him with a smile, shaking his head. Even after all these years, he still couldn’t believe how he had gotten her into his arms only to let her go. That didn’t mean he was going to give up on the idea of trying to win her back. In fact, it made him all the more determined.

###

At the Iolani Palace, Steve found Dani in her new office while workers were setting up their new headquarters. He hesitantly approached her desk as she looked up at him.

“Hey.”

Before he could lose his nerve, he slapped the envelope in his hand onto her desk and tried to make a hasty retreat. He should have known that it wouldn’t be that easy. Not with her.

“Uh, what’s this?”

“Three nights at the Kahala Hotel. Look, I know you’re gonna say no-”

“You’re right; I am gonna say no. What is it with you and my living arrangements?”

“Grace is coming over this weekend, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So, I heard this place has a nice pool and you can swim with the dolphins. Consider it a peace offering. Just take it.”

He tried to leave again but was once more stopped by the sound of her voice.

“Hey,” he turned around, “You, uh…you look really bad.”

They smiled at each other and Steve bit his lip to prevent himself from saying something stupid. Luckily for him, Dani opened her mouth again to say something.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

They shared another smile and soon they were enjoying beers with Kono and Chin. Despite Kono’s awful suggestion of the name ‘Strike Force’, as they sat there contemplating what to call themselves, laughing and having fun, Steve looked around and knew that he had found his new ohana. He glanced at Dani and mused, perhaps in more ways than one.


	3. Confessions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I meant to update way earlier than this but I got sidetracked with a summer job and procrastination is a thing. I apologize for this but better late than never, right? I hope you enjoy it.

Dani strolled into the McGarrett house, casually swinging a white paper bag in her hand. She had just dropped Grace off at school and knew that Steve was bound to call her soon to pick him up since he didn’t have his own ride yet and seemed to be growing attached to driving her Camaro in the few days that the team had been together. She shook her head. Of course, he was still a control freak. The detective soon found the said man in the dining room, sitting at the smaller table as he listened to his father’s tape recordings. He turned to face her when she entered the room.

“What is it with you and walking into people’s houses?” he asked, foregoing pleasantries.

Dani glanced at the front door, “Well, I knocked.”

“I didn’t hear you knock,” Steve replied.

“I did knock and when I saw you through the window, I thought you nodded.”

“Didn’t nod.”

“Would you like me to leave?” she asked sarcastically.

“Depends. What’s in the bag?”

“Oh, those donut looking things they sell on the block.”

“Malasadas?”

“Yeah, they’re fried and they taste good. Want one?”

Steve stood up from the table, “Not without bypass surgery. You can stay. Just don’t eat near my stuff.”

“Well, can I have a napkin, Mr. Clean Freak?”

Steve looked down at her and swallowed when he saw the sugar on the side of her mouth. He resisted the familiar urge to wipe it off affectionately – or worse, _lick_ it off – and nodded as he went to get her a napkin, smiling the whole time.

“Yeah.”

“What was that look? Did they teach you not to spill in the Army?”

“Navy,” he replied, “And it’s not the spill. It’s the scarf.”

He wiped off the sugar on the table and gave the napkin to Dani who by now had taken a seat and was looking up at him, puzzled.

“It looks like a tie and no one in Hawaii wears a tie.”

“Oh, I’m sorry I like to look like a professional.”

“A professional what?”

The blonde rolled her eyes and put down her malasada before pointing to the silk scarf tied around her neck, “This is my favourite scarf. Grace gave me this for Mother’s Day and just in case you don’t remember your time there, back in Jersey, along with every other normal city in this country, this is what a detective looks like.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Shirt, tie and donut crumbs? You missed a spot.”

Dani looked down at her shirt and brushed off the offending food particles as Steve continued to talk.

“Look, you’re never going to fit in here looking like you’re from the mainland.”

“Who says I want to fit in? I don’t want to fit in. I want to look like I’m from the mainland. I got 87 homicide cases under my belt looking like this.”

“Not in 110° weather. I’m just saying.”

“I’m not taking off the scarf, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Jeez, what next? You got a problem with my shoes too?”

“Now that you mention it, I do. Heels?”

Dani glanced down at her shoes, “I’ll have you know that these are perfectly sensible boots. I can run in them, can’t I?”

“But-”

“Just-just do me a favour, alright? Let it go.”

Steve looked as though he wanted to say something else but thankfully, he decided to not question her fashion choices any further. At least for now. Dani bit back a sigh of relief and watched as he took his previous seat across from her before closing the tool box on the table.

“That’s your dad’s stuff?” she asked cautiously.

“Yeah.”

“Did you figure anything out yet?”

“No. I’m only getting more questions than answers. Did you check with the Coast Guard?”

“Yeah, they couldn’t find Hesse’s body.”

Steve frowned, “He’s still alive.”

“Look, there’s no way he can be. You shot him really close to his heart, if not directly there, after which he immediately fell into the ocean. Nobody’s seen him back at the harbour and he couldn’t have gotten that far. He’s fish food.”

Despite her reassurances, Dani wasn’t so sure herself if Hesse was really dead and Steve seemed to know that.

“I just don’t know.”

“They’ll find him.”

The SEAL didn’t get a chance to reply as his phone began to ring. As he answered it, he shared a look with Dani that said more than words ever could. Whether Hesse was dead or not, Steve would make it his mission to ensure that he got the proper revenge on the persons involved in his father’s murder.

“Yes, Governor?”

###

“Our kidnapping victim’s name is Roland Lowry. His car got T-boned an hour ago, gunshots were exchanged and passengers were killed. This all happened in broad daylight.”

Dani listened to Steve briefing her in on the case as they made their way to the crime scene and raised an eyebrow when he finished talking.

“That seems like a lot of trouble to go through to yank an ordinary guy off the street.”

“That’s cause he’s not ordinary. Lowry is ex NSA. He used to have top secret security clearance which means that his abduction could be a serious national security threat.”

“What else did the governor say?”

“Find him.”

When they made it to the crime scene, they met up with Chin and Kono who were soon assigned to search the SUV that the victim had been in while they went to inspect the van that had crashed into it.

“SS-190 armoured piercing rounds. These guys were definitely well off,” Steve said.

Dani walked past him to sit in the van, “This wasn’t a local job.”

“What do you have?”

“This van was reported stolen two days ago. The two dead guys in the SUV are hired muscle from Bruddah’s Private Security.”

“That’s interesting.”

“Why is that interesting?” Dani asked, watching as her partner bent down beside the SUV and pointed to the shattered but not broken window.

“This is density layered ballistic glass laminated unto a shield of resilient polycarbonate.”

“Why can’t you just say bulletproof?”

“Get Chin to call the security company to find out where they were going.”

Before the blonde could reply, Kono came up to them with Lowry’s phone in her hand.

“Guys, Roland’s last call was at 6:15 a.m.”

“Same time he was abducted,” Dani commented, “Who’d he call?”

“His son, Evan.”

Steve looked at his partner, “We got our witness.”

###

After picking up Evan, who had yet to leave for school, Dani and Steve sat him down at headquarters in the bullpen to question him. They had made sure that he was comfortable, even offering him a soda before starting their round of interrogation. Eventually, they reached a checkmate.

 “Alright, buddy, look,” Steve said, “Your dad had two bodyguards with him. Any reason why he’d hire them?”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

“Bodyguards? I have no clue,” Evan paused, “I just can’t believe it. I mean, that could have been the last time I ever saw my dad and I called him a dictator.”

Neither Dani nor Steve knew how to respond to that. Luckily for them, a woman came in at that moment followed by Kono. She headed straight for Evan who got up to meet her.

“Evan, are you alright? I’m so sorry.”

As she began to comfort him, Steve and Dani got up from the table and gestured for Kono to follow them out of the room. Once they were in the hallway, Steve asked the obvious question.

“Who’s that?”

“Natalie Reed,” Kono replied, “Roland’s girlfriend.”

“Does she have any idea who would want grab her boyfriend?”

“No.”

“Alright, stay close. If this is for ransom then the abductors might try to make contact and I want someone there to trace the call if it happens.”

“Okay,” Kono said with a smile before turning to go back inside.

“Hey,” Dani placed a hand on her arm, “Give us a couple hours to solve this case and I promise you won’t miss your graduation.”

Kono smiled, “It’s cool.”

Chin came up to them, waving a flash drive in his hand.

“I pulled up the footage from this morning on the traffic cam near the crime scene,” he said, “I’ll see if there’s anything there that can help us.”

“Did you get in contact with the security company?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, I spoke to the owner. Apparently, Roland hired the bodyguards for an appointment he had this morning.”

“Where were they going?”

“Hickam Air Force Base.”

“You know anyone at Hickam?” Dani asked, turning to face Steve. When his only response was to walk away, she rolled her eyes.

“Stupid question. Of course you do.”

###

After learning that Roland wanted to expose a serious threat to the island in order to prove its vulnerability, Dani and Steve were on their way back from Hickam when Chin called. He had been watching the tape he pulled from the traffic camera and noticed that one of the perps who had been in the accident had somehow gotten away and was also injured.

They made it back to HQ as quickly as they could which wasn’t that hard with Steve’s driving. They only stayed long enough to put on their TAC vests before leaving again, headed straight for The Kahiko Hotel with Chin in tow. When they arrived, Steve noticed blood on the top button for the elevator and went inside as soon as it opened. He, along with Dani and Chin, squeezed into the small space alongside a family.

“Cops, don’t worry,” Steve said once he noticed the young boy staring up at him from in-between in his parents. Dani rolled her eyes at this as she and Chin glanced at each other before she bent down to the boy’s height.

“You like hippos?” she asked gently, referring to the floatie around his waist. He nodded and she smiled at him.

“I like hippos. I have a daughter and she loves hippos too.”

The boy smiled at her and she returned the gesture before casting a reassuring look at his mother.

“It’s okay,” she said. The woman threw her a grateful look before the doors opened and she ushered her son out of the elevator along with his father. When the doors closed again, Dani raised an eyebrow at Steve.

“You have an amazing way with children,” she muttered, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Steve frowned, “What?”

“Never mind.”

Soon enough they were off the elevator and eventually followed the trail of bloody handprints to the roof. There they found their perp lying in a pool of his own blood, the bullet wound on his arm still bleeding sluggishly. Steve bent down to check the man’s pulse as Dani and Chin kept their guns aimed at the unconscious man.

“Dead?”

Steve looked up at Dani and grimaced.

“Not yet.”

He dragged the man into a sitting position and propped him against a nearby wall. Dani found a hose and asked Chin to screw it unto a tank as she tested the pressure. When it seemed to be working, she sprayed their perp’s face until he woke up.

“Hey, sleeping beauty,” she said, spraying his face one last time for good measure, “Welcome back. What’s your name?”

The man could only blink up at her as though he hadn’t heard her question.

“The lady asked you a question,” Chin said.

Steve bent down so that his gaze was level with the man’s, “Where’s Roland Lowry?”

Still no answer. Dani sighed, dropping the hose as she knelt to be at his eye level.

“You see that bullet wound on your shoulder there? It’s not gonna stay that way forever. Soon, it’s going to get infected and you’re gonna have to go it checked it out. If you don’t, well let’s just say that you’re not going to like it. Unless, of course, you enjoy organ failure and having your kidneys ripped out just from a simple infection. Would you like that?”

Quiet seemed to be the man’s trademark personality trait as all he did was stare at Dani in response. The detective rolled her eyes at this and opened her mouth to continue her interrogation when Steve knelt beside her and took up the man’s hand. He pushed the perp’s thumb against his wound and appeared to feel no remorse when he screamed in pain.

Dani could only sigh in resignation as she stood up and watched Steve do his own version of persuasion. The SEAL pulled a napkin from his pocket and pressed the man’s thumb against it to make a print. He then handed the bloodied napkin to Chin who had been quietly observing the display of military interrogation techniques.

“Run that print for me.”

As Chin walked away, Steve grabbed the perp and forced him to his feet. Dani hastily followed them to the edge of the roof where the SEAL threw the other man over the barrier, grabbing his legs at the last minute.

“What the hell are you doing?” the blond shouted. She had seen him do some crazy and stupid things in the past but this took the cake. Where had he gotten the idea that hanging someone off of a roof was best way to interrogate the person? Steve ignored her question, however, and began to grill the terrified man.

“Why were you going after Roland Lowry? Huh?”

The perp only screamed in response as he flailed around.

“You think anyone’s gonna care if you die? You-”

Dani snapped her fingers in front of Steve’s face which seemed to finally catch his attention.

“Okay, you might not know this but we need him, alright? You can’t just dangle him off the edge of a roof and expect him to tell you what he knows, you Neanderthal! He can’t tell us tell us anything if he dies, ergo, _he’s useless to us_!”

“Ladies, you can stop now,” Chin called from behind them. He waved his phone in the air, signalling that they had gotten a hit on the man’s fingerprint. Dani turned to look back at Steve with a glare who only gave a curious look in response.

“Ergo?”

“You and I are gonna have long talk when this is over. Get him up. Now!”

He looked as though he wanted to protest but eventually dragged the man up and over the edge before dropping him on the ground. Dani gave him a hard look before turning to face Chin.

“What do you have?” she asked, walking over to him.

“His name is Sergei Evanovich, a Serbian national with rap sheet a mile long. He’s in a gang who mostly pull smash and grab type stuff.”

Dani frowned, “Thieves take things, not people.”

“Maybe they graduated to kidnapping.”

“Or maybe,” Steve interjected, “They knew what Roland had to show the general and they wanted it. Either way, I want this guy back at HQ. Throw him in a hole and run a deep background check on him. I want to know when he got on the island, his known associates, everything.”

“Got it.”

Chin began to apprehend Evanovich as Steve turned around and walked away. He didn’t get very far until Dani’s voice stopped him.

“Where are you going?”

“Roland’s house. I want to know what these thieves were after.”

“That way you’re going?”

Steve paused, seeming to realise which direction he was going in. He turned around and made his way to the door where Chin and Evanovich were going through.

“Not a word,” he said, pointing a warning finger at Dani. The detective rolled her eyes but held up her hands in a placating manner before she followed him to the door.

###

The silence in the car was deafening. Dani stared through the windshield, quietly fuming as she refused to bring up the elephant in the room. Steve glanced at her and sighed when she only glared back at him.

“Just let it go,” he said, motioning with his hand.

“Please do not speak to me now.”

“Okay, are we really gonna do that thing again-”

“Shut up. Just for one second. It’s my turn now, okay?” she waited until Steve nodded before she continued, “Sergei Evanovich is a suspect, am I right? That means we treat him like source of information before we book him. Torturing and killing-”

“Wait, what? I wasn’t going to kill him!”

“Why are you talking?”

“I’m just trying to explain-”

“Why are your lips moving?!”

Steve held up one hand in a placating manner, keeping his gaze on the road.

“Look, I know the Governor gave you full immunity and means but that in no way gives you the right to hang a guy off the roof! I was gonna break Evanovich. I just needed time. That’s how police work goes.”

“Can I speak?”

“Please!”

“Okay. Evanovich was only gonna speak out of fear of death.”

Dani gave him an incredulous look, “Fear of death?”

“Yeah.”

“People will tell you anything out of fear of death!”

“Did you see the tattoo on his hand?”

“What?”

“The blue star. The blue star tattoo he had on his hand. It’s a New Belgrade Serbian Mafia tattoo. These guys kill kids, they slaughter families, Dani! That boy’s gonna lose his father.”

“Okay, is everything going to be a personal mission for you? You hang a guy off a roof cause you lost your father?”

“Dani-”

“No, seriously, I want to know! Because if everything is gonna become a personal mission for you, I count my odds of job security, not to mention survival, pretty slim! We’re partners, aren’t we? So, if you are gonna be the shoot first and questions later kind of guy, I would at least like to be consulted so I know when to duck!”

Steve was silent for a moment and he glanced out of the window as he answered, “Okay.”

“Okay.”

“For the record, I wasn’t going to kill him.”

“Well, that is good.”

###

They arrived at Roland’s house soon after and showed their badges to the officers assigned as guards. As they walked towards the front door after entering through the gate, Steve and Dani glanced around at the immaculate front lawn, studying their surroundings.

“Okay, so we have security cameras, double dead bolts, two separate entrances,” Dani listed, “What about the automatic gun turrets?”

“Evan was right. Roland does take his personal security seriously,” Steve said as his partner began to unlock the front doors.

“Yeah, well, being paranoid doesn’t stop them from catching you.”

She opened one door and gestured for Steve to enter first.

“Alright, so notebooks, files, computers, that sort of stuff.”

“Thank you, Inspector Obvious,” Dani quipped from behind him, “Because I surely needed you to list that out for me since I’m apparently not a detective. I’ll check the back.”

Steve ignored the sarcasm, sparing a glance at her as she passed him. He bit his lip as he wanted so badly to say something but couldn’t get the words past his mouth. Finally he shook his head to get rid of his unwelcome thoughts and began to search the house. Both he and Dani came up empty handed and converged in front of a built-in bookcase at the back of the living room, jutting out from the wall.

The SEAL looked over at his partner and noticed that she was staring at the bookcase with a familiar expression. It was a calculating look that she often got when she was trying figure something out.

“Falling asleep with your eyes open again?”

“That’s funny but uh, this wall. I mean, I’m no architect but doesn’t it seem weird to you? Like there should be another room there.”

Steve looked at the bookcase, realising that Dani was right. He knocked on the wall and began to search for an opening upon hearing a hollow sound in return. A scratch was on the edge of the bookcase and he made no haste in prying the wall open. What he found on the other side was a bit baffling and he stood there for a moment, just taking it in.

“Wow.”

“What is it?”

Dani appeared at his side and he stepped inside to allow her space to enter. In the room was a large number of computers and advanced machines.

“Oh wow, uh, this is slightly above my level of expertise.”

Steve walked over to one of the monitors and lifted the keyboard.

“Hey, wait. No, no, no, don’t touch that.”

He ignored the warning and pressed a key anyway causing the monitor along with the others beside it to turn on. Various codes and encryptions ran across the screens before them.

“We need to find someone who can make sense of this.”

Dani raised an eyebrow, “What? Naval Intelligence and none of this looks familiar to you?”

“No, I – look, I’ve seen super grade level cryptography before but this is…this is something out of hacker world.”

“Hacker? I think I know a guy who can help us.”

“You know a guy?”

“Yeah, I know a guy. I know people too,” she paused, “You got any cash on you?”

###

“How’d you say you know this guy?” Steve asked as they pulled up to the address that Dani had given him. She answered while they were getting out of the Camaro.

“His name is Adam Charles. First case I was working when I got here six months ago, he was caught hacking ATMs all around the island. Basically a good kid, just got caught up in the wrong crowd who was using him for his talent.”

“So what happened? You felt sorry for him?”

Dani took up the grocery bag filled with candy from the car, “I just put a good word in for him with the judge. I mean, the kid got a scholarship to MIT. A genius, really. At least for forty-two minutes of the day.”

“What about the rest of the time?” Steve asked. They approached the house, the large front porch peppered with persons in various stages of being stoned.

“He’s baked liked a potato.”

“Ah, pakalolo.”

Steve faked bringing a joint up to his lips and Dani nodded.

“Yeah, he says it helps him to see patterns and codes are basically patterns.”

She led her partner over to a young man with long dark hair and the beginnings of what could be a large amount of facial hair. He put aside his laptop and took off his headphones when the detective dropped a bag of lollipops in front of him.

“Oh boy, dessert before dinner.”

He reached towards the bag but stopped once he realised that he had company.

“Jersey. Aloha.”

“Toast.”

“You’re looking all kamaaina.”

Dani gave him a tight lipped smile in return, knowing what the word meant.

“It’s the tie, isn’t it?”

The detective scowled at her partner before looking back at Toast, not even bothering to correct him. She knew it would just pass right over his head.

“Look, we need a favour.”

“Grab your stuff,” Steve said, “You’re going for a ride.”

On the way back to Roland’s house, Steve couldn’t help but stare at Dani out of the corner of his eye, only partially focused on the road before them. It was silent for a long while with Toast zoned out on his laptop in the backseat, his headphones providing the perfect noise blocker.

“What is it?”

Steve blinked, “What?”

“I know you were staring at me so just spit it out.”

“Dani…” His voice trailed off as he was unsure of what to say. When he only got an expectant look in return, he sighed and began to speak.

“What happened between us, Dani?”

“Okay, wow. You want to have this conversation now? You never did have the best timing.”

“I know it’s not the best time-”

“Damn right it’s not the best time-”

“Dani, all I’m trying to ask is…don’t you think about what would have happened if we…?”

Dani turned to give him a speculative look, her blue eyes gleaming in the sunlight.

“If we what? Didn’t break off the engagement?” At Steve’s tentative nod, she continued, “Yeah. Yeah, I do but it doesn’t matter now, does it?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“What I’m trying to say, Steven, is that no matter what we do, we still made the same mistakes we did years ago and there’s no going back from that. The past is in the past. I’ve learned to get over it.”

Steve frowned, glancing at his partner. He wanted to continue their conversation but knew that he would get nothing else out of the detective. She was staring out the window, seemingly set on ignoring the elephant in the room. As much as he wanted to push the matter, he decided that two could play at that game and he saved whatever he had left to say for a later discussion. However, Steve was now seriously beginning to doubt that that would happen.


	4. Tales of the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness, I am so sorry. I've been really busy these past few months and I wanted to wait until everything calmed down before I did any proper writing. However, I tried to add a little if i got any free time. So, here you go. I hope you enjoy.

Once they were back at Roland Lowry’s house, Dani and Steve showed Toast to the computer room that they had found. He quickly got to work, oblivious to the tension between the two officers behind him. Eventually, he turned his head to look back at them.

“Seriously guys, can’t I smoke in here?” he asked for what wasn’t the first time.

“No,” Steve and Dani chorused.

“Harsh,” Toast paused, “No way. This is unreal. I’ve heard rumours about this guy online but I thought they were fake. He really did it.”

Steve’s eyebrows furrowed, “Did what?”

“He built a skeleton key. A worm that can bypass asymmetric encryption on high grade security networks and also allows for remote access to infrastructure systems.”

“Great. You wanna dumb it down for my friend here?” Dani piped up, gesturing towards Steve.

Toast sighed, “Just look.”

They stared at the screens for a moment until Steve suddenly stepped forward, moving from his spot against the wall.

“Wait, that’s a rendering of the power grid of the entire island and radar ray of Honolulu International Airport.”

Dani turned to give Toast a look.

“What did Roland do?”

“I don’t know. I mean, we’re talking about places with heavy grade A encryption and he hacked them.”

“All with this computer right here?”

“No, this is all just archives of what he did. The skeleton key isn’t on these drives.”

Toast glanced around the room, his gaze eventually landing on a control unit adjacent to them.

“My guess is that it was right there.”

“Well, now we know what Roland wanted to show the General,” Steve said.

“Yeah but if the key can hack into the island infrastructure or any government computer…”

“Whoever has it can do the same.”

###

Back at HQ, Steve and Dani stood at the computer table with Chin who had pulled up Sergei Evanovich’s record.

“He flew in from Serbia two months ago,” the older man was saying.

“Alone?” Steve asked.

“No, he came with a Drago Zankovic. As far as I can tell, he’s the boss. He paid for the tickets and they both came with doctored passports.”

“Well, there were three guys on the traffic cam,” Dani commented.

“Show me all Serbian passports in Hawaii in the last six months.” Steve said.

After Chin had pulled up the images for the owners of said passports, they browsed through the pictures, looking for a suspicious face. Dani’s eyes roamed over the screen, nearly missing a very familiar face. She did a double take and pointed to the image.

“Blow that one up.”

“Nadia Lukovic,” Chin stated as they stared at her picture.

“AKA Natalie. Let’s go.”

They rushed out of HQ and piled into the Camaro. As they were driving, Steve pulled out his phone to call Kono.

“Steve,” her tinny voice came over the phone when she eventually picked up.

“Kono, am I on speaker?”

“No.”

“Kono, you and Evan need to get out of there now. Natalie is working with the Serbs,” Steve announced.

“Yeah, it’s going great.”

The strange reply caused her teammates to exchange confused looks. Steve quickly asked Chin to run a trace.

“Kono, can you tell us where you are?”

“Yeah, I might even take Evan out for a swim at Mokuleia Beach.”

“You’re headed north.”

“Exactly.”

Suddenly the call was abruptly cut off. There was a sudden change in the atmosphere as the three of them realised what had happened. Someone had disconnected Kono’s phone to make her unreachable. A tense silence filled the ride until Dani’s phone rang, interrupting the worried mood that had filled the car. Steve quickly answered the call and put it on speakerphone.

“Yes, Toast?” Dani spoke up.

“Uh, Jersey, I don’t want to alarm you but-”

“Hey, take the lollipop out of your mouth cause I can’t understand a word.”

“I don’t want to freak you out but the skeleton key just went live.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means someone’s using it…no, no, no.”

“What is it?”

“The radar just went down.”

“Can you trace the hack?”

“No, I can’t pinpoint where it’s coming from. Whatever it is, it just took down the Honolulu Approach radar.”

“Now why would someone do that?” Chin asked.

“To get in and out undetected,” Steve stated.

It wasn’t long after they hung up that a jet with no markings or tail number flew overhead.

“That’s not one of ours.”

“So where did it come from?” Dani enquired.

“I don’t know but it’s gotta land somewhere.”

“There’s a skydiving school nearby.”

Dani raised an eyebrow, “Skydiving?”

“Yeah. That’s…Dillingham Airfield.”

At the airfield, the three of them grabbed their vests out of the trunk and prepared their weapons. They lurked around corners, looking for any entrances as they stuck close to the walls of the skydiving school.

“So, how do you want to do this?” Dani asked. Steve turned his head to look back at her. He had an indecipherable expression that made the detective pause.

“How would you do it?”

Dani stared at the SEAL for a moment before answering, “Spread out and take the building from the top.”

Steve's lips twitched, “See? This partnership is working already.”

Dani stopped herself from rolling her eyes as they creeped around to the main entrance. Steve made eye contact with Kono through the glass before gesturing towards his partner. The blonde nodded back and began to climb the ladder to her left, reaching the roof at the same time as Steve. They snuck inside, making sure to be out of sight. On Steve’s signal, the ensuing gun fight was successful. That was, until they noticed the ignited gas tanks in the corner of the room caused by a stray bullet.

They all raced outside just in time to be blown off their feet by the explosion. Flames licked the air above them as they checked themselves over for injuries. Dani and Steve hurriedly got up to apprehend Zankovic, who had managed to escape alongside them.

“Book ‘em, Danno.”

Dani sighed and gave her partner an annoyed look.

“Is that gonna be a thing now?”

“What? You don’t like it?”

“No.”

Steve tilted his head like the dog he was and Dani could swear that she saw a hint of a smirk on his face.

“I think it’s catchy.”

He then walked away, leaving the detective with Zankovic. Speaking of, when she turned to look at him, he was staring down at her.

“What are you looking at?” she snapped, “Come on.”

###

While they were at HPD, it didn’t take long for everyone to notice the one thing that had been pushed to the back of their minds during the day. Kono’s graduation. She hadn’t said anything about it but it made her teammates feel guilty since they had promised her that she would make it. Dani frowned when she saw how sullen the other woman looked. An idea suddenly popped into her mind. She nudged Steve who was standing beside her.

“I have an idea. Call Chin.”

###

After Kono disappeared into the restroom, the other members of Five-0 convened at the computer table. They had sent her ahead to HQ while they put their plan into action. Now here they were in their official dress uniforms. Steve was in his dress blues, looking as good as ever. Dani had only seen him in it once or twice in the time that they had known each other and she had found him attractive in it back then. Now? Well, she didn’t have an answer to that one.

As for her, it had been a while since she’d worn it but her Newark PD uniform fit like a glove. She could feel Steve’s gaze burning into the side of her head but paid him no mind as Chin shifted uncomfortably on her other side. His uniform, no doubt, made him feel awkward but it was also obvious that he would do anything for his cousin. When the said woman finally came out, she stopped upon seeing the three of them. She looked at each of them, her expression one of confusion.

“What’s going on?” she questioned. Steve stepped forward.

“Well, we felt bad that you missed your graduation because of the case and we decided to do something nice for you. So…” he trailed off as he handed her a pine wood box, “Go ahead.”

Kono opened the box, finding a Kel-Tec nine mil. She smiled and thanked Steve who then stepped back to allow Dani to step forward. She handed the younger woman a necklace with Saint Michael engraved on both sides.

“He’s the patron saint-”

“Of law enforcement. I’ve seen some cops with this.”

Dani smiled, “Well, now you have one too. To keep you protected in the line of duty and then some. I got it at my graduation and it’s always kept me safe. That was until I started working with him.”

She gestured towards Steve who only shrugged a shoulder at the comment.

“Thank you, Dani,” Kono said with a chuckle.

The blonde nodded in response before Chin stepped up to take her place. He gave her a flashlight which had a few words inscribed on the surface; ‘ _To my cousin, who always brings light to darkness_ ’, it read. Chin reached up and pinned a badge on his cousin’s shirt.

“I wouldn’t have missed your graduation for anything,” he murmured before stepping back, “Now raise your right hand. I solemnly swear to faithfully support the constitution and laws of the United States of America and the State of Hawaii.”

“I solemnly swear to faithfully support the constitution and laws of the United States of America and the State of Hawaii.”

With that said, Kono was sworn in as the newest member of the Honolulu Police Department and the Five-0 task force.

“Now, what do you say we get out of here?” Dani asked.

“I say great minds think alike,” Kono replied. They laughed and after they had all changed into something acceptable, they went out for drinks at a nearby bar. It wasn’t the graduation she was promised, but it was the best one that Kono could ever ask for.

###

They went to a hole in the wall bar which Chin said served wings and reasonable beer. After they had all been seated and ordered their first round, on Steve, they started a light, friendly conversation until their beers came.

“To Kono,” Chin said, lifting his glass. The others followed suit and clinked their glasses together in a toast to their teammate.

“I’m really proud of you, Kono,” Chin commented, “We all are.”

Kono grinned, “Thanks, cuz.”

“Yeah, as long as you don’t have to start at HPD.”

“You’re lucky. I wouldn’t wish that one anyone,” Dani interjected with a bitter tone. She felt Steve shift closer to her and tensed at his movement.

“Well, all that matters is that you’re here now,” the SEAL started, “I’m sorry you got hurt today, Kono. That wasn’t supposed to happen. You’re family. We look out for each other.”

“Thanks, Steve,” Kono said with a grateful smile. Dani nudged her and she chuckled in response, sending their small group into a light banter that flowed easily between them. Dani could admit it. She had fun but sitting beside Steve for the entire night as he obviously had a lot to say to her that she really didn’t want to hear was not the best thing she could ever experience. The stiffness in the air between them was uncomfortable and he blonde had no doubt that Chin and Kono had noticed it but chose not mention it in favour of having a good time. Dani made it a point to avoid Steve after their night of fun had ended, quickly slipping into the Camaro and driving off into the cool Hawaiian night.

###

It took longer for Kono to break than Dani expected. It was a few weeks after the impromptu graduation ceremony when the younger woman knocked on the door to her office. Dani looked up from the work on her screen and waved Kono inside.

“What’s up?” the detective asked, watching as her friend flopped onto the couch.

“If it’s okay with you, can you tell me what happened between you and Steve?”

Dani tensed for a short moment, not expecting the question. To be honest, she had wondered when Kono and Chin were going to ask about the obvious tension between the two other members of Five-0 but she definitely didn’t know them enough if she hadn’t gotten the subtle approach she was anticipating.

“You know, I thought you wouldn’t last this long. You’re like a dog with a bone and curiosity is your fatal flaw, my friend.”

Kono grinned as if it were a good thing, “So?”

“So, be sure to listen up cause I’m not telling this story more than once.”

“Alright, go ahead! Go ahead!” Kono exclaimed, leaning forward like an eager child, excited for story time.

“Okay. So, Steve and I met a long time ago-”

“How long?”

“Hey, who’s telling the story here?”

“Sorry.”

“That’s what I thought. Anyway, Steve and I met a long time ago. He was in Jersey visiting a friend and we bumped into each other. We started talking and soon the talking turned into dates until finally he asked me to be his girlfriend. I agreed and life went on. Remember that this is all during his years in active service so we didn’t see each other all that much but we were young and foolish. We were in love.”

A pause and then…

“We dated for a while, a few years actually. Eventually, one day when he came back on shore leave, he took me out to spend the day with him. We went to all my favourite spots in Jersey and more. So when it’s beginning to get dark now, he takes me for a walk along the beach – yes, Kono, New Jersey does have beaches – and tells me to turn around. So, of course, I’m confused but I do it anyway. He tells me to turn around and there he is down on one knee. I said yes. Things were going great for about a month or two and I thought everything was fine. Until it wasn’t.”

Dani took a deep breath, deliberately not looking at Kono who seemed to be entranced by the story.

“He came back from a mission one day, all withdrawn and standoffish. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong but I gave him his space. It seemed to work, right up until the point where he woke me up in the middle of the night, screaming about how he didn’t want to marry me. I was shocked and…hurt by this. I practically begged him to tell me what was going on and only got that one of his teammates died, leaving behind a wife and a kid.”

Dani was on a roll now and she forced herself to continue before she lost her mind track.

“He said he didn’t want us to end up like them. He didn’t want to leave me widowed. I kept trying to tell him that I was in it for the long haul. I mean, I wouldn’t have agreed to marry him if I didn’t know the things that came with it. But he wouldn’t have it. Eventually, this turned into sleepless nights and screaming matches that could have put my divorce with Raymond to shame. It wasn’t going to work out, we both decided and then he left Jersey. For good.”

A heavy silence hung in the air after she had finished talking. The detective stared down at her desk until she saw Kono move out of the corner of her eye. She looked up just in time for the other woman to place a hand on hers.

“I’m sorry, Dani. If I knew, I would have never asked you to tell me.”

“No, it’s okay. I needed to get that off my chest and besides, I did it willingly.”

Kono gave her a small smile, squeezing the blonde’s hand for a short moment before letting go.

“Lunch?”

Dani smiled back, grateful for the distraction.

“Yeah. I think I could go for a sandwich right now.”


	5. There's Bonding And Then There's Getting Attached

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I'm back! I hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it. Below is a poster I made for I Still Love You along with a picture of Dani If you guys don't imagine her like that, that's fine. Just picture her how you want to.

[](http://www.freeimagehosting.net/commercial-photography/)

Later in the same week that Dani had confessed everything to Kono, she received another less than surprising visitor. She had just hung up from a rather heated phone conversation with Raymond, once again about her visiting rights, when Chin knocked on her office door. She waved him in as she tried to reign in her frustration. The detective already had enough on her plate with one ex bothering her. She didn’t need another one barging into her life and turning everything upside down, even more so than usual.

“Yes, Chin?” she asked as politely as possible.

“Hey, Dani. Do you have a minute?”

“Sure. What is it?”

Chin came closer to her desk, “Kono told me about you and Steve.”

Dani could only sigh at the information, not in the least bit surprised. She knew that the cousins told each other almost everything and it would be stupid of her to think that her history with Steve would remain a secret for long after she told Kono about it.

“I just want to tell you that I get where you’re coming from,” Chin continued, “I used to be engaged to a doctor. I know it’s not the exact same thing as working side by side with your ex-fiancé but cops are notorious for visiting the hospital.”

Dani nodded, “I see. No offence but why exactly are you telling me this?”

“Well, I just wanted you know that I know how you feel. If you feel like you need to talk to me about anything, I’ll make time for you.”

Dani felt gratitude swell inside of her. She had only known these people for about a month and had never felt more like part of a team. Ever since she had arrived at this pineapple infested tourist trap, she had been ostracized and discriminated against by the locals. The only person who had given her the time of day was Meka. Now, she had new friends/co-workers who treated her like an equal.

“Thanks, Chin, I really appreciate it.”

“No problem, Dani,” he replied. He flashed her a meaningful look before he left her office. Dani leaned back in her chair with a sigh. Maybe she wasn’t so alone in Hawaii after all. The blonde then returned to her work, smiling and unaware of the person staring at her from his office.

###

After the talk that she had with Chin, Dani somehow felt closer to the team. They had only been working together for almost a month. In that time, they had gotten to know each other and had bonded over different things. Steve had taken to inviting them over to his house for barbecues and the two times that they had accepted were actually enjoyable, much to Dani’s chagrin. It wasn’t as if she hated bonding with the team. She liked it, actually. It was just that she found it uncomfortable and a bit too nostalgic to hang around Steve. It brought back old memories that she would have liked to forget at this point in time. Unfortunately, her body didn’t agree with this notion; her mouth, in particular.

Dani normally didn’t have a filter but when she was drunk, she truly didn’t know how to control her words. She said whatever came to mind and it was at one barbecue where the claim that drunken words were sober thoughts came into fruition. They had finished eating and were relaxing on the lanai, all at least four beers in.

“You know, I’m really glad I got to meet you guys,” Kono declared.

“Me too,” Chin agreed, “I never thought I’d be a cop again but I’d prefer this than being falsely accused at HPD.”

Dani raised her fifth – or was it sixth? – beer, “Hear, hear. After six months with them I’m surprised I didn’t snap earlier and quit.”

At this, Chin lips twitched, “I heard about you when you were working there.”

“Really? How?”

“Having a family full of cops and gossiping women pays off. Sometimes.”

“So, what did you hear?” Dani could tell that her words were slightly slurred. That was her cue to stop drinking but she threw caution to the wind and took another sip. It had been a long while since she had been able to properly relax with a group of friends.

“You had quite a temper when working there. Never stoop down from a challenge unless the captain got involved and I heard that only your partner could put up with you.”

Dani smirked, “Yeah, well, that’s all true. It’s not my fault that they were all assholes and that I’m a haole. I was only defending myself. Besides, I would choose Meka over those idiots any day.”

“Let’s all just all agree that most of HPD is filled with jerks,” Steve suggested, “Even from before I left.”

They all nodded and murmured out agreements.

“So, what about a name for our task force?” Kono asked, changing the topic of conversation.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s been a month and we can’t keep going around as the Governor’s State Task Force,” Dani insisted.

“I’m fine with anything but Strike Force,” Chin joked. They chuckled as Kono playfully slapped her cousin’s arm.

“Hey, I thought it was a good idea,” she protested.

“You know what, Kono? Maybe we should save that as a backup plan if we can’t think of something,” Dani commented.

“Oh, I have one,” Chin interjected, “A’ohe hana nui ke alu ‘ia.”

There was brief pause before suddenly Steve and Kono burst out laughing, knowing what it meant while Dani shook her head in amusement. Chin looked between them, perplexed as he wondered what they found so funny.

“It means no task is too big when done by all,” he explained which only prompted louder laughter from Steve and Kono and caused Dani to join in this time.

“You know, that’s the problem with you haoles. You’ve got no spirit. No island spirit.” Chin shook his head in despair, finally aware of the fact that he was surrounded by children. When the others eventually calmed down, their conversation drifted into another topic as they laughed and joked around as if they had all been friends for years. At one point Steve had gotten up to get another beer and when he turned around he found that Dani was also in the kitchen.

“Oh, did you want another one?” he asked. He turned back towards the fridge but was stopped by the sound of Dani’s voice.

“No, I’m fine,” she mumbled, “But there is something I do want from you.”

Steve froze. He remembered that tone. It could only be described as seductive and he was confused as to why Dani felt that way. He wanted her back, yes, but he knew that she didn’t exactly feel the same way in return. He slowly turned around and watched as she leaned against the counter across from him.

“Dani, what are you talking about?”

The corner of her lips curved up, “I think you know already.”

He did but he wasn’t about to make assumptions at this point in their relationship.

“I don’t. Enlighten me.”

“Well, let’s just say that my bed has been a little lonely without you there to warm it up,” she disclosed. She took a step closer and then another. Soon, there was nothing but an inch of space between them and Steve finally realised what had made Dani’s tongue so loose. She was tipsy, not drunk but if she didn’t stop drinking now, she would be.

“I’ve missed you, Steve,” she murmured. The SEAL shook his head sadly, wishing that she had been completely sober when she said it.

“Why don’t we go back outside?”

Dani sighed and pursed her lips before she left the kitchen and Steve in a heavy silence. The night eventually came to a close when Chin decided to take Kono home when it became obvious that she had become too comfortable, nodding off in her chair. Dani quickly followed suit, claiming that she was sober enough to drive, and Steve was left alone to ponder on what had happened.

###

Later that week on Thursday, Dani had just returned to her office after an awkward encounter with Steve in the break room. She was still a bit hazy on the details of what had happened on Tuesday night after her fifth beer but she had a feeling that something had gone down between the two of them. The SEAL was acting stranger than usual around her. It would have been hard to notice by anyone else but Dani had known Steve for years. She could still tell when something was bothering him but that mostly due to his aneurysm face.

The detective sat down behind her desk once more and got ready to start on the paperwork for a case they had just finished. She was only halfway through when her phone chimed with a new message.

_From: Kono  
Hey_

_Sent 2:42 p.m._

Dani looked up at Kono’s office but the said woman had her eyes glued to her computer screen.

_From: Dani  
Aren’t you supposed to be working?_

_Sent 2:43 p.m._

_From: Kono  
Well, ur texting me back._

_Sent 2:43 p.m._

_From: Dani  
Touché._

_Sent 2:44 p.m._

_From: Kono  
; P Anyway, the guys and I were thinking of going to a football game on Friday at Kukui high. U in?_

_Sent 2:45 p.m._

Dani frowned. She wouldn’t mind going to the game but it was her weekend with Grace. She didn’t want to miss any time she had to spend with her little girl. She bit her lip before finally texting Kono back.

_From: Dani  
I have Grace. Rain check?_

_Sent 2:48 p.m._

_From: Kono  
Why don’t you bring her? I want to meet her._

_Sent 2:49 p.m._

Dani thought about it. It could work. She would still have her time with Grace and also introduce her daughter to her new friends. Two birds with one stone. Plus, Grace would love going out, even if it was just to a game.

_From: Dani  
Okay._

_Sent 2:50 p.m._

_From: Kono  
Yay! See u tomorrow._

_Sent 2:50 p.m._

Dani smiled and put down her phone. Now all she needed to do was to tell Grace about it but the blonde had no doubt that her daughter would agree to go. She wondered how Steve was going act upon meeting her. Dani had noticed his reaction to her having a child and it could only be described as disappointed. Disappointed that she had moved on? Disappointed that she had a child that wasn’t his? Whatever the case, it didn’t make her anymore excited for Saturday to come.

###

That night found Dani video chatting with her sister, Bridget on Skype. They had always been close with each other and told each other everything. This included ranting about a certain 6’1” Navy SEAL who didn’t know what personal space meant.

“So, what’s up with you?” Bridget questioned, giving her sister a confused look.

“What do you mean?” Dani asked.

“I mean that you seem really out of it. I’d guess that you were missing Jersey but that doesn’t look like your normal homesickness to me.”

Dani sighed. Bridget was always too good at reading her.

“Okay, I haven’t told any of you yet, for a very good reason, but uh…guess who’s back.”

“Who? Don’t leave me hanging, sis.”

“Steve.”

Bridget paused, the curious expression on her face fading into one of shock.

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah. Remember how I told you that he used to live in Hawaii before we met?”

“Yeah. Did he move back?”

“He did. He joined the SEALs after he left Jersey. His, uh, his father died when he was away on a mission and he had to come back for the funeral. He also came back to catch the killer.”

“Wow.”

“I know. Anyway, someone unfortunate got stuck investigating his father’s murder.”

Now Bridget only looked amused, “Let me guess, you?”

“Yes. I mean, can you believe it, Bridget? Out of the hundreds of cops working in the homicide department and the captain chose _me_ of all people to investigate the murder. My partner wasn’t even allowed to work it with me and just my luck to end up in a situation like that.”

Bridget chuckled, seemingly finding pleasure out of her sister’s pain.

“Oh come on, Dani, it couldn’t have been that bad.”

“It was! You will never imagine how we ended up meeting.”

“How?”

“I was searching his dad’s house for any evidence and I heard something coming from the garage. I went inside only find Steve staring back at me with his gun pointed at my face. We kinda shouted at each other and he took my case right out from under me by calling the freaking _Governor_ of Hawaii. Then he shanghaied me into being on his task force.”

“Wait, so you two are working together now?”

“Yes.”

“And how are you dealing with that?”

Dani sighed, “Honestly, I’m okay with it but that’s only because of the two other people working there with us; Kono and Chin.”

“As long as they treat you better than those idiots back at the police department did, then I’m okay.”

“They do.”

“Well, that’s good,” Bridget paused, “Seriously, Dani, how are feeling about being with Steve every day? Especially after what happened between the two of you.”

Dani frowned. She knew that she and Steve had a lot to work out with each other in their relationship since they hadn’t exactly parted on the best of terms and now, the tension between them was so thick that it was tangible. Now that Chin and Kono both knew their story, they tried their best to avoid an awkward situation by either changing the topic or intervening in the conversation. Dani also knew, however, that she couldn’t run from her problems forever. She would have to talk to Steve at some point. She told this to Bridget and watched as her younger sister pursed her lips.

“Do you want my opinion?”

“I don’t know.”

“Too bad, you’re getting it anyway. I think that you and Steve have a lot to talk about with each other. He’s not my favourite person since you guys broke off the engagement but if you can find it in yourself to be reasonable about this and maybe even forgive him one day, just know that I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

The detective grinned, glad to have such an amazing – at times – family.

“Thanks, Bridget.”

“Hey, what are sisters for? Anyway, I’ve got to go now. Tell Grace I said hi.”

“I will. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Dani disconnected the call and shut down her laptop. She leaned back in her ratty couch, wincing at the springs digging into her back. She was about to turn on the TV when her phone vibrated beside her. Seeing the name ‘Steve McGarrett’ flashing across the screen, she bit her lip before answering.

“Bored, Steven?”

“No, not exactly. I was, uh, wondering if you could come over. To talk.”

The blonde was about to say no when she remembered Bridget telling her to be reasonable. She frowned in contemplation before replying.

“I can come over.”

“Great. I mean, uh, that’s good.”’

Dani rolled her eyes, feeling her lips twitch as she hung up. Twenty minutes later, she found herself in Steve’s living room on the couch. He had offered her beer but she had only taken a few sips.

“So, what’s this about?” she finally asked.

Steve shifted uncomfortably, “I wanted to talk to you about what happened on Tuesday.”

“Okay. What about it?”

“Dani…, do you remember anything about that night?”

“Bits and pieces. Why?”

Steve stared at her for a moment. He looked awkward, which was unlike him and Dani started to wonder about what could have possibly happened on Tuesday night. She remembered going to the barbecue, talking to her co-workers and then leaving. She had a vague memory of being in the kitchen with Steve but couldn’t recall the words that were said.

“You told me something. Something that I’ve been thinking about for the past few days.”

“And are you going to tell me what that something is?”

“Uh, you said that your bed has been lonely without me there and that you…you missed me.”

Dani blinked. Surely, there was a mistake. She couldn’t have said something like that to Steve. She just couldn’t. Then again…drunk words were sober thoughts and she had been overwhelmed by Steve’s sudden re-entrance and constant presence in her life. That was it, right? That had to be the only reason why she said that to him. It was then that she noticed that he had been staring at her the entire time, trying to discern a reaction.

“Dani? Is it true?”

“I can’t – I don’t know,” she shook her head, her thoughts becoming jumbled.

“Dani, look at me.” When she didn’t, he lifted her chin and turned her head so that she was facing him. They gazed into each other’s eyes, their heart beats speeding up as their breaths mingled.

“Steve, I-”

“Tell me you don’t want this. Tell me you don’t want to feel my hands running through your hair or yours through mine. Tell me you don’t want to feel our lips against each other. Tell me don’t want to feel our skin touching.”

Dani couldn’t. Steve took that as his cue to lean forward and pressed his lips to hers. He cupped her face, tilting his head to deepen the kiss when she didn’t pull away. Dani found herself melting into the kiss despite an inner voice telling her to take things slow. She didn’t listen. Her hands fell on Steve’s biceps, slowly making their way upwards until her arms were wrapped around his neck. It was slow and passionate, expressing different things that they couldn’t put into words. Most of all, the kiss was familiar. The feeling of each other’s lips having never faded away, despite all the years in-between. As his lips travelled down to her neck, Steve slowly lowered Dani onto the couch, both getting lost in the feelings of the past.


	6. Decisions, Decisions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, wonderful readers. I hope you'll like this one.

_‘This isn’t my apartment.’_ This was the first thought to pop into Dani’s mind when she woke up the next morning. There were several things wrong with her situation. One being that she had awoken looking at wall décor which she was quite sure wasn’t in her apartment. Two, she was as stark naked as the day she was born. Three, the mattress on which she slept was extensively softer and more comfortable than the one belonging to her shabby pull out couch. Lastly, but the most prominent, was the heavy arm draped across her waist, muscles flexing underneath tanned skin as the grip on her tightened.

Dani bit back a groan as she carefully slipped out from under the person’s arm and turned to look at who she had apparently spent the night with. Memories of the night before flooded her mind when she caught sight of dark hair and tattoos. He looked peaceful in his sleep, younger and untroubled. There was no time to dwell on that, however. She needed to get out of there before he woke up which would be – she glanced at the alarm clock – sooner than she hoped.

The detective rushed to get dressed, trying to ignore the bizarre places in which she found her clothes. Just as she was putting on her shoes, she heard the rustle of sheets and froze.

“Dani?” his confused voice broke the silence of the morning, “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m getting dressed,” she snapped. She quickly put on her shoes before standing up to look at him. He was sitting up in the bed, staring at her with a baffled expression as though he couldn’t fathom why she was leaving.

“Why?”

Dani sighed, “Because, Steve, this was a mistake.”

He blinked. A brief look of hurt flashed across his face before it was back to puzzled.

“Dani, you can’t-”

“Yes, I can and I will. This was never supposed to happen and I’m not sure how it did. Now, can we please just forget about this and pretend like it didn’t happen?”

Without waiting for a response, she rushed out of the room and down the stairs. Her phone was on the coffee table in the living room lying beside two bottles of unfinished beer. She grabbed it and left the McGarrett house, feeling overwhelmed and possibly, just slightly, satisfied.

###

After returning to her apartment to shower and change, Dani reluctantly made her way to work. She made a show of greeting Kono and Chin before going into her office without a word to Steve. She could only hope to get through the day while ignoring the events of that morning and the night before. She sighed, sinking into her chair. It was going to be a long day, case or no case.

A few hours of paperwork and pretending that Steve didn’t exist and she could feel her stomach growling for food for the fourth time. In her haste to get ready, she had forgotten all about breakfast. She glanced at the time on her screen. 10:17 a.m. A quick trip to the break room before lunch wouldn’t hurt, she decided. She had only grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge in the said room when Kono chose that moment to walk in.

“Hey, Dani. Can I talk to you for a minute?” she asked. Dani had been experiencing these moments with the cousins more often than not.

“Uh, sure. What about?”

“You and Steve,” Kono replied frankly, “You guys have been acting stranger than usual. Is there something wrong?”

“Yes, there is in fact something wrong. Do you want to know that something is? I slept with Steve; that’s what’s wrong.”

Kono’s eyes widened as she leaned in closer, not unlike someone wanting to hear juicy gossip.

“Wait, seriously? You guys actually-”

“Yeah.”

“But I thought you two weren’t together.”

“We aren’t,” Dani stated dryly, “But he invited me over to talk and we got caught up in the heat of the moment. As you can imagine, we didn’t do much talking.”

Kono winced, “Oh. Sorry, brah.”

“No, it’s fine. If I ignore him enough, he might just pretend it never happened.”

“You sure about that, Dani? Because he’s been staring at you since you came in this morning.”

Dani raised an eyebrow. She had known this already but hearing it from someone else meant that Steve was getting sloppy if anyone could notice him looking at her. It also meant that he wasn’t likely to disregard their night together. Not that that was surprising.

“If I know Steve – and I do – he’ll want to talk about what happened but trust me. Being emotionally constipated isn’t going to help him. Besides, I sent him a pretty clear message this morning of what I thought about last night.”

It was quiet between the two women for only a minute until Kono broke the silence.

“So, was he any good?’

Dani blinked a few times as she processed the question. Then, she took a step back with her hand up.

“Okay, I am not going to answer that for obvious reasons.”

She quickly grabbed a muffin before leaving the break room with Kono trailing after her, asking questions that the blonde may or may not have blushed at. And they said that _she_ had no filter.

###

They arrived at the game late. It was still before half time but Dani had had to pick up Grace at the country club after her tennis lessons. She wanted to scoff at the ridiculousness of it all but Ray was apparently not immune to Step-Stacey’s wishes. Mother and daughter climbed the stands until they reached where the others had chosen to sit and took the empty bench below them.

“Hey, you made it!” Kono exclaimed with a grin. Dani smiled.

“Yeah. Sorry we’re late.”

“No problem,” Kono looked down at Grace, “You must be Grace. I’m Kono.”

Grace smiled shyly, “Hi.”

“Aloha,” Chin stepped in, “You can call me Uncle Chin.”

“Are you a football player?”

“I used to be. I was on that red team and I was pretty good too.”

“Yeah, until I came and smashed all his records,” Steve boasted, “Hi, I’m Steve.”

“I know. Danno talks about you a lot,” Grace revealed. At this, Steve looked at Dani who gave him a tight smile.

“We commiserate,” she explained. It didn’t do anything for his heart which chose that moment to skip a beat in his chest. Chin quickly came to the rescue before it got awkward.

“That’s a pretty tennis outfit you have there,” he said to Grace.

“Thank you.”

“Step-Stacey thought it would be fun to sign her up for tennis lessons at the country club,” Dani said before covering Grace’s ears with her hands, “If you ask me, I think it’s stupid, really. I barely even consider tennis a sport.”

“I can still hear you, Mom,” Grace admitted.

“Well, you’re not supposed to hear me, are you?”

Grace only smiled in response.

Kono leaned forward, “Speaking of outfits, you’re looking casual today. I’m impressed.”

Dani looked down at herself. Kono was right. She had ditched her usual dress pants for a pair of dark blue jeans and paired it with a white and black striped button down shirt. On her feet were black ankle boots to complete the look. It wasn’t what she would have usually worn but Grace had picked it out for her and she couldn’t bring herself to say no.

“Is that supposed to be a compliment?” the detective finally asked.

Steve smiled, “I think it is. You look great, Dani.”

“Uh, thank you.”

She quickly turned away and proceeded to watch the game. It wasn’t long, however, before her daughter started to complain about being hungry.

“What do you mean you’re hungry? We ate an hour ago.”

“But we didn’t have nachos an hour ago.”

Dani raised an eyebrow at Grace but only received a pleading look in return. The blonde sighed, feeling her lips curve into a small smile before she stood up.

“Alright, come on. Anyone else want anything?”

After being told to get another plate of nachos and a soda, the blonde made her way down the steps and towards the food stand with Grace in tow. She was feeling generous today, otherwise she wouldn’t have offered. That was when everything went wrong. Dani looked out at the field, catching a glimpse of something glossy in someone’s hand. Upon realising that it was a gun, she immediately turned Grace around and steered her towards an older woman with a young girl beside her.

“Excuse me, ma’am, but I’m a police officer. We may have a situation here and I need you take my daughter, Grace, with you and your daughter to the bathroom. Please,” Dani implored.

The woman nodded, “Okay.”

Dani smiled gratefully before bending down to Grace’s height.

“This nice lady is gonna watch you for a while, okay? I’ll be right back,” she said softly.

Grace frowned, “Mommy…”

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay. I’ll be back, I promise. I love you.”

“I love you too, Danno.”

Dani smiled, brushing her thumb along her daughter’s cheek, “Now, be good.”

He kissed Grace’s forehead and stood up.

“Stay in the bathroom until I come back,” she told the woman before running towards the field. She pulled out her phone, stopping at the edge of the stands.

“Hey, where are my nachos?”

“Forget about that. I’m seeing two guys heading onto the field, both strapped.”

Dani heard Steve instructing Kono to call HPD as they hung up. She looked back to where she had spotted the two men just in time for one of them to raise his gun. Chaos was quick to follow. In the aftermath, when HPD had finally arrived and managed to help evacuate the stadium, Dani snuck away to get Grace. As soon as she appeared in the bathroom door, the eight year old flew into her arms.

“Danno!”

Dani lifted her onto her hip, “Hey baby. I told you I’d be back.”

She looked at the woman whom she had asked to watch Grace and told her that it was safe to leave while thanking her. The detective then left the bathroom and the stadium all together. Outside was mixture of police cruisers and ambulances as HPD officers and EMTs milled about, doing their respective jobs. Dani approached a young cop and explained the situation to him. He agreed to take Grace back to HPD where Ray could come and pick her up.

“Alright, Gracie, this nice officer here is going to take you to the station. Your father is going to pick you up.”

Grace nodded and allowed her mother to put her down.

“Are you gonna be okay, Mommy?” she asked, worried.

“Of course. I’ll see you later, monkey.”

The officer led Grace away to a cruiser and Dani watched as it drove away from the crime scene. She could just see the impending custody battle with her ex-husband. The detective sighed and proceeded to make her way over to Steve.

“So, what do we have?”

###

Finally, the case was over. It had been tiring, mostly due to Steve’s extreme methods of interrogation. What kind of person threw someone into a shark cage? _‘It’s for tourists, he said.’ ‘It’ll be fun, he said.’_ Dani shook her head. Someone needed to put Steve in an asylum, but then again, he would probably terrorise the workers and eventually break out. The detective wondered how she had fallen in love with him in the first place but she remembered that she hadn’t known about Steve’s lunacy back then. What a wakeup call.

She had just returned to HQ after spending a few hours with Grace. She had gone to Ray and Step-Stacey’s mansion to plead for more time with Grace. She loved her daughter and she didn’t come all the way to this terrible island for her only to have to fight for custody. Luckily, Ray’s lawyer had been listening to her speech and granted her time with her baby while agreeing to drop the case. It hadn’t been her fault that a shootout had occurred.

Dani stood in her office after she had just finished deciding to leave her report until morning. She was normally a stickler for that sort of stuff – while her teammates seemed allergic to it – but for tonight it could wait. She needed to relax. A knock on the door brought her out of her thoughts. She lifted her head just in time for Steve to stick his head into the room.

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

The SEAL shuffled inside, closing the door behind him.

“Sid’s supposed to feel pretty welcome at HPD now,” he commented.

“Hmm?”

“Well, look at all the stuff he did for the case. He’s a hero.”

“He and Chin are cool?”

“Yeah. Chin saved his life.”

Dani bit her lip, “Speaking of, did you talk to the governor about my custody battle.”

Steve’s lips twitched, “I might have mentioned to her Stacey’s plan to build a new hotel. You need the governor’s approval for that.”

Dani resisted the urge to smile. She and Steve were still on rocky ground but she was beginning to remember why she had had such ardent feelings for him. Aside from his good looks, he was loyal and willing to go to great lengths for the ones he cared about. She could respect that about him.

“Thank you,” she paused, “But I don’t think that’s the reason you came in here.”

Steve crossed his arms, his expression becoming cautious as he seemed to be weighing his words in his head.

“I know that talking about last night is the last thing you want to do right now but just hear me out.”

Dani nodded slowly and watched as Steve took a deep breath. Then he continued.

“I’m not the best with…emotions and you know that but I need to explain myself. I can’t say that if we try again, it will work out and I can’t say that we have the best relationship now. Dani, you have to know that I’ve never felt any different to you than I did back then. I’m sorry about last night but honestly, I don’t regret it. That’s because I…I still love you, Dani. I never stopped.”

The silence in the office was deafening. Dani’s mind was working overtime. He loved her. Steve still _loved_ her. She stared at him, her face carefully blank and his expectant. How was one supposed to respond to a confession like that? It wasn’t exactly surprising though. She had suspected that Steve still had some feelings for her which wasn’t hard to guess with his behaviour. But the question was: did she love him back?

Sure, she had loved him in the past. She had loved everything about him. His hair, his ever changing eyes, his muscular build, his kindness, the way how he had never looked at anyone differently despite their outward appearance. She could go on. It all changed when they broke up. Or so she thought. Dani didn’t think that she loved him as much as she used to but she could admit (with some difficulty) that her feelings had never completely disappeared. Even when she had gotten married to Ray. That was one of the many reasons they got a divorce. With Steve, however, Dani could come to a compromise.

“Well,” she started, “I can’t honestly say that I’m surprised by this. Truth is I don’t love you like I used to anymore, but, uh, I’m not completely adverse to a relationship with you. Don’t take that for a cue or anything. You still need to tell me what was going through that thick skull of yours when you left Jersey.”

She watched as Steve’s face flooded with relief and he nodded once in agreement before he was back to his normal stoic self.

“So, can we be civil?” Dani asked.

“Of course. I just have to ask; how much of your soul did you have to lose by saying that?”

Dani couldn’t keep the smirk off of her face when she replied, “Hold on, I’m measuring.”

“Funny,” Steve said dryly, “You might not be as alone in Hawaii as you think, Dani.”

She didn’t have response for that. Eventually, they ended up in the conference room where the cousins were watching a video and laughing.

“Hey, what are we watching?” Steve asked, placing himself in the seat beside Chin. Dani sat down beside Kono, realising that there was a football game playing on the monitor.

“You getting your ass handed to you, boss,” Kono replied with a cackle.

“Kukui put all the old games online,” Chin explained, “This is the state championship.”

Steve leaned back in his chair, “Oh yeah.”

They watched for a short moment, wincing and laughing when appropriate.

“I remember watching this with your dad,” Chin mentioned, “He kept screaming in my ear.”

“You and my dad were there?” Steve asked, his eyebrows raising in surprise.

“Yeah. He was my training officer. Used to drag me to your games all the time, especially when he learned that you were starting quarterback.”

“Tell me something,” Dani interjected, “What’s a quarterback doing with the number 50 on his jersey?”

Steve smiled as though he were sharing a secret, “It’s Five-0. My family weren’t native Hawaiians so my dad called us that after the fiftieth state in the union. It was his way of making us feel like we belonged.”

“Hmm,” Kono hummed, “I like that.”

Dani smiled, “Yeah. Five-0.”

They all exchanged a smile, obviously thinking the same thing. Five-0 would be a great name for the task force. So, it wasn’t just John McGarrett’s nickname for his family anymore. It was for all four of them now. They were different from each other but they came together as a family, as ohana. Dani liked it.


End file.
